Narratives

Site Information

Convened on 6 December 1915 the inter-allied
conference at Chantilly, Paris, signalled the first concerted attempt to forge a
common Allied strategy across multiple fronts of the war. In attendance
were representatives from Britain, France, Italy, Serbia and Russia (although
the attending British Commander-in-Chief,
Sir John French, was soon to be
recalled and replaced by Sir Douglas Haig).

Presided over by French
Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre,
the conference was held just two days after an Anglo-French
meeting at Calais in which the
British, led by war minister
Lord Kitchener, succeeded in persuading the
reluctant French, represented by Prime Minister
Aristide Briand, to abandon Allied
operations in the military and strategic backwater of Salonika.

Such was the French public and political outcry
at the prospect of abandoning Salonika that Joffre seized the opportunity at
Chantilly to reverse his earlier agreement with the British. The latter,
keen not to unbalance Briand's administration, reluctantly agreed to continue
the Salonika offensive.

Separately the Russian government, as
represented by
Yakov Zhilinski, argued forcefully for the principle of inter-allied
co-operation during major offensives. He cited the example of the lack of
coordinated Allied support during that year's Triple Offensive. Agreement
was consequently reached whereby the other Allied nations would launch
offensives of their own whenever any other Allied nation came under clear threat.

This was subsequently put to the test when the
German Army launched a ferocious offensive upon the French fortress of
Verdun
the following February, resulting in the belated British
Somme Offensive in July 1916
and the disastrous Russian attack at
Lake Naroch
in March (an ironic situation for the
Russians given it was their insistence upon the policy which necessitated their
own subsequent intervention).

The Italians also assisted by launching the
latest in a string of offensives along the Isonzo in early March (the fifth, which as usual
ended in failure).

Sponsored Links

Saturday, 22 August, 2009Michael Duffy

Stormtroopers comprised specially trained German assault troops used in 1918.